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I agree with Randy. Track work is VERY HARD work. I have done a limited amount (as limited as possible) and it will tire you out cause you to twist, turn, sprain, strain, hurt and abuse your body to limits you can only imagine in your darkest nightmares. Also, lets not forget wearing heavy protective clothing all the time (particularly bad in the summer), being around all sorts of things that can and will burn you (welding crucibles, torches, grinders, rope match, switch heaters, etc) shock you (generators, live wires, etc), cut you (chain saws, track equipment, motors, drills, track saws, etc), pinch you (rail, hand tools, switch points, frogs, switch stands and machines), and lets not forget freeze you (plows, jordan spreaders, switchstands, shovels and anything metal in the winter). Darn, almost forgot about the danger of working on or near live tracks. Even with working limits and flagmen it is not fullproof. I still remember the day when I was running west near the site of a new highway bridge over the tracks and the river parallelling the double track. I reached the flagman a MOW foreman on the radio and received permission through the work area and was advised "come on through, make some noise, everybody is in the clear", only to round the curve at 40 with my three widebodies (Dash9s) and see the boom of a track hoe swing across the tracks about 100 yards in front of me. Next thing I heard was a thud as my conductor hit the floor and the rush of air from my full service application on the 80 car mixed freight coupled with the blast of the horn I was holding down with my other hand from my kneeling position on the floor of the cab. Luckily the idiot operator saw us about the same time we saw him and kept the boom moving. We cleared it by inches as we sailed by at about 35 mph...whew. Time for an underwear stop after that...and you wondered what we keep in those grips...lol... In short, it is still a miracle to me that anyone volunteers to do it. I love giving track guys cab rides just to see the pride in their faces riding over "their" track. We couldn't do it without them... LC
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